Forum:How did ME3's Default Shepard play in ME2?
How is Mass Effect 3's no-Genesis default new-game Shepard presumed to have played in Mass Effect 2? I got curious when I looked at who was alive and who was dead by default in a New Game. By default, Shepard did not purchase any of the upgrades for the Normandy SR3, as the "Alliance Frigate Normandy SR-2" War Asset will show; none of the upgrade text will be there. This is consistent with Jacqueline Nought's name on the memorial wall, presumably killed by the Oculus laser due to inferior ship armor. Dialog in-game seems to indicate the following: * Jacob: Loyalty mission done, but outcome not specified (q.v. Gellix mission; he'll specifically mention the mission with his father haunting him). * Miranda: Loyalty mission not done; the dialog with her will change to specifically mention Oriana if this was done. * Garrus: Alive, though I do not know if the loyalty mission was done or what the outcome was. * Jack: Loyalty mission outcome unspecified, as she's dead. * Grunt: Absent. As he is neither listed on the memorial wall nor found alive on his mission, I'm left to guess that he was left inactivated. * Mordin: Alive, loyalty mission not done. (If it was done, Wrex/Wreav would comment about Shepard's choices during Priority: Sur'Kesh.) * Thane: Dead, presumably by collapsed pillar unless Kasumi, Legion, or Tali died there. * Tali: Loyalty mission not done. Tali is exiled in absentia as a traitor. * Samara: Absent, so presumably her recruitment mission was ignored and Shepard went straight for the Reaper IFF upon completing some other missions instead. * Morinth: Absent. * Legion: Absent, and not sold off to Cerberus. This leaves the other possible outcome of Legion being left in the AI Core unactivated. * Zaeed: Absent, presumed never recruited. * Kasumi: Absent, presumed never recruited. This leaves Jacob as the only defender certain to be loyal, with Garrus being a question mark. This alone leaves a lot of questions about why more didn't die holding the line! With Jack lasered to death, Kasumi absent, and Legion never activated, the first to die due to inferior shielding would be Tali, or should she be in Shepard's squad, Thane. Tali, however, is alive in ME3, so this the default Shepard must have had her in the squad, leaving Thane in her place and dead due to inferior ship shielding. Or, if Shepard took Tali and Thane in the squad, Garrus would be the one who dies. Since he's alive, we know that Shepard took Tali along but not Thane. Had Tali died due to inferior shielding, Thane would be the one to die due to inferior weapons. However, Thane is already dead. That implies that Garrus was the one who died due to inferior weapons systems. And yet Garrus is alive in the main playthrough; how would this have happened? Then there's the "Hold the Line" phase; multiple "weakling" characters, such as a non-loyal Mordin and non-loyal Tali, are alive even though Shepard didn't exactly have the mightiest and well-prepared of teams to cover the rear. Those characters, especially if non-loyal, are the very first to die if Shepard's "hold the line score" isn't up to par. And yet somehow the non-loyal Mordin and non-loyal Tali survived into Mass Effect 3; how would this have happened? And while escaping the Collector base, Shepard's immediate squadmates die if they aren't loyal. Given that only Jacob and possibly Garrus were loyal (and Garrus is somehow living even though it would seem that he died due to inferior weapons), then one or more squadmates would not survive the collapses while escaping he base, as non-loyal squadmates taken on the final mission die. That would leave Shepard with yet two more fatalities on his crew. And yet we don't see more of the Normandy crew dead. How would this have happened? The Supreme Deity (talk) 05:07, January 19, 2014 (UTC) :I think a lot of it has been done for gameplay purposes, ie having the characters available to Shepard in ME3. I know that if you select numerous casualties at the opening of the game Mordin is also among the dead. In regards to your query though the only way to explain the deaths would be if Legion was activated, and thus died in the engine core, leaving Thane to die under the pillar, although I know that leaves a unexplained absence on the Memorial Wall. Garhdo (talk) 19:21, January 19, 2014 (UTC) :I'm certain Gardho is right - the ME3 default start was probably made arbitrarily with only passing reference to finer points of the ME2 rules. But great work on the analysis! It would have been cool if they'd made it match exactly, and even cooler if consecutive "default" Shepards could start with slightly different/randomized outcomes. Cattlesquat (talk) 18:30, January 21, 2014 (UTC)